The Senate approved a US$16-million loan yesterday from an international commercial bank for the purchase of speedboats and Navy equipment.
The Dominican Ministry of Armed Forces has assumed responsibility for patrolling the Mona Channel, the water passage between the Dominican Republic and Puerto Rico. For the US, vigilance of the channel is a given in the face of the fact that a large percentage of the drugs entering the DR from Haiti continue on to Puerto Rico by “yolas” and then enter the US. In an interview with John Collins for Caribbean Business, Armed Forces Minister Jose Miguel Soto Jimenez admits that “maintaining the territorial integrity of the US, including Puerto Rico, is a responsibility of the US government.” But, the reality is that the Mejia administration has been picking up the tab regardless with the purchase of modern Navy equipment to patrol the waters. “We’re the only country in the word that is expected to control the entry of foreigners into another country,” he said, referring to Puerto Rico as part of the US.
Soto Jimenez said that “a big percentage of the budget of the Dominican Navy is spent preventing Dominicans from going to Puerto Rico.” But Soto acknowledged that the DR also assists the control of traffic “in order to honor the alliance between the DR and the US, as well as for humanitarian reasons such as the safety of the people involved.”
The Mejia administration has given such priority to the military that it has seen fit to divert funds that had been allotted to the Ministry of Education to the Ministry of Armed Forces.
“The current budget of the Armed Forces is RD$4 billion, which, at the current devalued state of the peso, is about US$70 million,” Soto told the Caribbean Business reporter. Last year, the Ministry of Education received disbursements of less than RD$8 billion. Soto confirmed that among other things, the money is used to pay the salaries of 40,000 rank-and-file troops, 5,000 officers and about 100 generals and admirals.
Soto justified the military’s value by also mentioning the importance of patrolling the Haitian border. “We’re talking about illegal migration and the trafficking in narcotics, illegal weapons and contraband,” he said.